Cockroaches!!!

[PoultryQueen29]

I was cleaning out my chickens' bedding and a cockroach crawled out from under it and scuttled away. My heart sort of skipped a beat and I ran inside. I sprayed all around the inside of the coop with poultry spray and put new bedding on top. I havn't seen any in the coop since then but I just opened the door to my shed and 2 roaches nearly fell on my head! I really don't want them going into my house and I don't know how to stop them.

What should I do to keep them out?

 

[SilkieBantams]

Let the roaches get eaten by the chickens

 

[Dora'smom]

Will chickens eat roaches? I don't have any here, but I do have box alder bugs by the million at certain times of year and my girls turn their little beaks up at them. Picky eaters, one and all.

 

[anderson8505]

My chickens eat roaches, yours probably just missed that one. It's ants that mine can't keep up with.

 

[goldeneggtees]

ewwwwwwww

 

[JP101010]

HAHA , now I know I am Addicted to chickens because when I read the title of this thread,a part of me thought yummm (for my chickens)

If i leave a deep container with a tiny bit of chicken feed mash in the yard overnight , i can trap about 30 large palmettos , roaches and stink bugs- and that becomes the flocks treat buffet for the next day! Its an all out riot to try to catch them live

I found out on accident and thought its greener than buying dehydrated crickets and mealworms. Mrs. Red always is the first to realize when the container is set out , shes a very smart chicken

 

[corgiscatsandchickens]

If the roaches you're seeing are the smaller, almost black variety, don't worry anyway. Those are wood roaches, and while they look a lot like the roaches that can cause an infestation in homes and apartments, they won't. Even if they came into your house. We used to have a TON of those wood roaches in our chicken house. Used to. The girls figured out that if they scratch up the bedding, the roaches can be found hiding. Now it's no surprise to find all of them inside the hen house hunting roaches!

Don't worry a thing about it. Roaches = Protein! Just try not to think about it when you're eating the eggs!

 

[PoultryQueen29]

Thanks for all the answers. I can't let the chickens eat them because they arn't in the chicken coop anymore. I'll try catching them and then feeding them to the chickens though.

 

[PoultryQueen29]

I just sprayed the inside of my shed with pesticides so hopefully that gets rid of them!

 

[SilkieBantams]

Pesticides is harmful to chickens...